United Laboratories (UL) and Onyx Insight are collaborating on an expanded life evaluation programme for wind turbines.
The partnership will use UL’s wind forecasting and structural assessment in combination with Onyx Insight’s operations and maintenance expertise and predictive technology to help wind farm operators enhance performance and maximise output from their maturing assets.
More than 15% of wind projects will reach approximately two decades of operation in 2022.
As assets age, they can become less reliable, leaving operators with three main choices to safeguard their investment: repowering, decommissioning or life extension.
By removing uncertainty around crucial maintenance decisions, advanced analysis and monitoring technology are helping to transform the economics of life extension and deliver ongoing revenue for asset owners at an affordable cost, said UL.
Onyx Insight and UL’s collaboration includes a review of over 100GW of assets globally.
It also covers technical advisory services on acquisitions involving turbine technical review, evaluation of target sites and operational expenditure forecasts.
The businesses have built on their collaboration with recent life evaluation projects involving hundreds of turbines across a range of makes and models.
The expansion of the collaboration will enhance UL’s in-house structural analysis with drivetrain evaluation capabilities and structural health monitoring for turbines, towers and foundations through Onyx Insight’s sensing solutions and analytics.
“When assets near the end of their original life cycles, operators will consider two key objectives: maintaining safety and profitability,” said Jeremy Tchou, director of UL’s wind advisory for North America.
“We are proud to partner with ONYX Insight to help asset operators achieve these goals using in-house structural analysis and advanced monitoring technology, arming them with the data they need to deliver for their stakeholders.”